Great Throughts Treasury

This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.

Related Quotes

Robertson Davies

The world is burdened with young fogies. Old men with ossified minds are easily dealt with. But men who look young, act young and everlastingly harp on the fact that they are young, but who nevertheless think and act with a degree of caution that would be excessive in their grandfathers, are the curse of the world. Their very conservatism is secondhand, and they don't know what they are conserving.

Caution | Conservatism | Men | World | Old | Think |

Robertson Davies

The whole world is burdened with young fogies. Old men with ossified minds are easily dealt with. But men who look young, act young, and everlastingly harp on the fact they are young, but who nevertheless think and act with a degree of caution which would be excessive in their grandfathers, are the curses of the world.

Caution | Men | World | Old | Think |

Robert Burton

Whoever you may be, I caution you against rashly defaming the author of this work, or cavilling in jest against him. Nay, do not silently reproach him in consequence of others' censure, nor employ your wit in foolish disapproval or false accusation. For, should Democritus Junior prove to be what he professes, even a kinsman of his elder namesake, or be ever so little of the same kidney, it is all up with you: he will become both accuser and judge of you in his petulant spleen, will dissipate you in jest, pulverize you with witticisms, and sacrifice you, I can promise you, to the God of Mirth.

Caution | God | Little | Promise | Sacrifice | Will | Wit | God |

Samuel Johnson, aka Doctor Johnson

There is no part of history so generally useful as that which relates to the progress of the human mind, the gradual improvement of reason, the successive advances of science, the vicissitudes of learning and ignorance, the extinction and resuscitation of arts, and the revolutions of the intellectual world. - If accounts of battles and invasions are peculiarly the business of princes, the useful and elegant arts are not to be neglected, and those who have kingdoms to govern have understandings to cultivate.

Cause | Caution | Chance | Conduct | Envy | Observation |

Samuel Johnson, aka Doctor Johnson

The excellence of aphorisms consists not so much in the expression of some rare or abstruse sentiment, as in the comprehension of some useful truth in few words.

Caution | Day | Mind | Vigilance |

Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt

And now, first and foremost, you can never afford to forget for a moment what is the object of our forest policy. That object is not to preserve forests because they beautiful, though that is good in itself; nor because they are refuges for the wild creatures of the wilderness, though that, too, is good in itself; but the primary object of our forest policy, as of the land policy of the United States, is the making of prosperous homes. It is part of the traditional policy of home making in our country. Every other consideration comes as secondary. You yourselves have got to keep this practical object before your minds: to remember that a forest which contributes nothing to the wealth, progress, or safety of the country is of no interest to the Government, and should be of little interest to the forester. Your attention must be directed to the preservation of forests, not as an end in itself, but as the means of preserving and increasing the prosperity of the nation.

Abundance | Aptitude | Business | Caution | Individual | Life | Life | Means | Men | Nations | People | Position | Reason | Rule | Strength | Time | Wealth | Will | World | Business |

Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt

Our loyalty is due entirely to the United States. It is due to the President only and exactly to the degree in which he efficiently serves the United States. It is our duty to support him when he serves the United States well. It is our duty to oppose him when he serves it badly. This is true about Mr. Wilson now and it has been true about all our Presidents in the past. It is our duty at all times to tell the truth about the President and about every one else, save in the cases where to tell the truth at the moment would benefit the public enemy.

Business | Caution | Control | Existence | Need | Right | Self | Business |

William Cowper

O solitude! Where are the charms that sages have seen in thy face? Better dwell in the midst of alarms than reign in this horrible place.

Caution | Heart | Man | Need |

William Cowper

On the summit see, the seals of office glitter in his eyes; he climbs, he pants, he grasps them! At his heels, close at his heels, a demagogue ascends, and with a dexterous jerk soon twists him down, and wins them, but to lose them in his turn.

Caution | Heart | Man | Need |

Willard Gibbs, fully Josiah Willard Gibbs

Just now I am trying to get ready for publication something on thermodynamics from the a priori point of view, or rather on 'statistical mechanics' . . . I do not know that I shall have anything particularly new in substance, but shall be contented if I can so choose my standpoint (as seems to me possible) as to get a simpler view of the subject.

Caution | Distrust | Hope | Love | Modesty | Qualities | Reputation |

W. Eugene Smith, fully William Eugene Smith

Everyone likes a good quote - don't forget to share.

Caution | Future | Hope | Men | Time |

Vladimir Lenin, fully Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

The proletariat aimed at those machine that bears the name of the state and that people stand on them to respect the unblemished Balkhcua and believe upon ancient myths view it the authority of the whole people, and declare the proletariat: the bourgeois lie. We have Antzaana this machine from the hands of the capitalists and we took it for ourselves. In this machine, or stick. We invest forms, and when lacking in minimum investment potential, when lawless Mlako land, Mlako factories, when relieved of this situation, which affects the other Baltkhmh and starves others, when disappear possibilities that, then just let this machine to break down. State then go away and disappear investment.

Caution | Coercion | Extreme | Force |

Virginia Woolf, nee Stephen, fully Adeline Virginia Woolf

I often wish I'd got on better with your father,' he said.

Caution | Complacency | Determination | Man | Men | People | Reason | Old |

Turkish Proverbs

It is more difficult than teaching a camel to jump (than to reason with fool). (Used to express frustration in discussion.)

Caution |

William Law

Receive every day as a resurrection from death, as a new enjoyment of life; meet every rising sun with such sentiments of God's goodness, as if you had seen it, and all things, new-created upon your account: and under the sense of so great a blessing, let your joyful heart praise and magnify so good and glorious a Creator.

Caution | Conversation | God | Good | Light | Means | Meditation | Nothing | Prayer | Soul | Spirit | Will | Wills | God |

Emma Goldman

The import is not the kind of work woman does, but rather the quality of the work she furnishes. She can give suffrage or the ballot no new quality, nor can she receive anything from it that will enhance her own quality. Her development, her freedom, her independence, must come from and through herself. First, by asserting herself as a personality, and not as a sex commodity. Second, by refusing the right to anyone over her body; by refusing to bear children, unless she wants them; by refusing to be a servant to God, the State, society, the husband, the family, etc., by making her life simpler, but deeper and richer. That is, by trying to learn the meaning and substance of life in all its complexities, by freeing herself from the fear of public opinion and public condemnation. Only that, and not the ballot, will set woman free, will maker her a force hitherto unknown in the world, a force for real love, for peace, for harmony; a force of divine fire, of life-giving; a creator of free men and women.

Caution | Enough | Faith | Mankind |

Euripedes NULL

We must flaw friends just and noble anger to the right of their friends from harm and injustice.

Caution | Enemy | Man | Prudence | Prudence |